1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hard disk drive, and in particular, to a technique for restoring data damaged by a computer virus in a hard disk drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a hard disk drive widely used as an auxiliary memory device for a computer system by virtue of its high data storage capacity, data is magnetically recorded on a magnetic disk (referred to as a disk, hereinafter). The hard disk drive has been increasingly used as personal computers (PCS) have proliferated.
Along with the increased provision and use of computers, viral damages have been increased, including loss of stored data or shut-down of a computer system by a computer virus (hereinafter, referred to as a virus).
More specifically, a virus is a kind of software program which operates in a memory and is stored in a file like a general program. The virus gives rise to many problems such as changing or erasing an existing file or the structure of a system, damaging data, destroying program files by re-formatting a hard disk, and locking up a computer. It also reproduces itself in another disk or computer.
A disk is infected with a virus by copying a virus-infected file or simply by looking over the directory of the file in some cases.
To restore such a virus-infected disk, a so-called vaccine program has emerged for removal of the virus and recovery of damaged data. However, the kinds of viruses are increasing due to the increased use of computers, and the viruses act more tactfully. Under these circumstances, it is impossible to cope with the viruses with vaccine programs for protecting data against viral damages.
The following patents each discloses features in common with the present invention but do not teach or suggest the specifically recited technique for restoring data damaged by a virus in a hard disk drive in accordance with the present invention: U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,147 to Shannon, entitled Computer Recovery Backup Method, U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,655 to Mann, entitled Method For Recovery Of A Computer Program Infected By A Computer Virus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,927 to Grote et al., entitled Fail-Safe EEPROM Based Rewritable Boot System, U.S. Pat. No. 5,367,682 to Chang, entitled Data Processing Virus Protection Circuitry Including A Permanent Memory For Storing A Redundant Partition Table, U.S. Pat. No. 5,721,877 to Heflinger et al., entitled Method And Apparatus for Limiting Access To Nonvolatile Memory Device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,470 to Fisherman et al., entitled Personal Computer Hard Disk Protection System, U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,139 to Cripe et al., entitled protected System Partition Read/Write Access On A SCSI Controlled DASD, U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,120 to Merkin et al., entitled Method And System For Detecting Computer Viruses During Power On Self Test, U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,006 to Jablon et al., entitled Method And Apparatus For Assessing Integrity Of Computer System Software, U.S. Pat. No. 5,684,875 to Ellenberger, entitled Method And Apparatus For Detecting A Computer Virus On A Computer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,559,960 to Lettvin, entitled Software Anti-Virus Facility, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,540 to Miller et al., entitled Transparent, Secure, Computer Virus Detection Method And Apparatus.
An object of the present invention is to provide for restoring data damaged by a virus in a hard disk drive.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a technique for restoring a system and a file recorded on a disk, which can not be booted and read, respectively, due to the virus.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a data restoring technique which can protect user data and increase the reliability of a hard disk drive by reducing rapidly increasing viral damages.
To achieve the above objects, there is provided a technique for restoring data damaged by a computer virus on a magnetic information recording disk in a hard disk drive. Booting information required to boot the hard disk drive and file position information indicating the position of a file when data is stored in a file unit are backed up in a predetermined portion of a maintenance area on the disk. The booting information or the file position information is restored based on the backed up information when the booting information or the file position information is infected with the computer virus.